Evaluation report
Evaluating Integration in the ICDS : Impact Evaluation of an AWC-cum-creche pilot in Madhya Pradesh
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Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5This report introduces an impact evaluation of a pilot in Madhya Pradesh, India, that added day-care crèche services to existing Anganwadi Centres under the ICDS programme. The crèches aim to strengthen care and stimulation for children under 3 whose mothers go to work, alongside the feeding and health care already provided. The pilot was run entirely through government systems, with technical assistance from IFPRI and the World Bank to train the new crèche workers. The text gives the background and rationale for the pilot but does not report how the evaluation was done or what it found.
Key points
- India has about 164 million children aged 0-6, roughly 20 percent of the world's children in this age group.
- 38.4 percent of children under 5 in India are stunted and 21 percent are wasted. Only 9.6 percent of children aged 6-23 months receive an adequate diet.
- In 2012 India restructured the ICDS to focus more on children under 3 years of age.
- The proposal was to offer crèche services for children aged 6-72 months, whose mothers work, in 5 percent of existing Anganwadi Centres.
- The pilot was fully government managed and owned, which the document says makes it potentially scalable and helps show the barriers and opportunities of scaling up.
Limitations
The text is only the background and introduction. It gives no evaluation design, sample, outcomes or results, so it cannot tell us whether the crèche model improved child outcomes.
Abstract
India is home to approximately 164 million children 0-6 years of age, constituting about 20 percent of the world’s child population in this age group. Their optimal development is critical to human capital development in the world. Yet, with 38.4 percent children under 5 years of age in India stunted, 21 percent wasted and only 9.6 percent children aged 6-23 months receiving an adequate diet, optimal child development in India is still a goal for the future. Indicators on cognitive development, while currently not available at the national level, are also likely to exhibit a similar status, as conditions for adequate cognitive development of the child are similar to those required for adequate health and nutrition. Investments in early childhood development (ECD) are thus critical. They are known to positively impact school attendance, retention, learning and lifetime earnings. Recognizing the relevance of strengthening their investments in ECD, India in 2012 restructured their Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) program framework to focus more on children under 3 years of age. One element of this strengthening was a proposal to introduce on an experimental basis, the provision of day care crèches for care and development of children 6-72 months of age whose mothers go to work, in 5 percent of existing Anganwadi Centers (AWCs). The model involved expanding the scope of the existing services provided at the AWC under the ICDS scheme to include crèche services for children under 3 years of age. The primary objective of adding creche services to the existing nutrition and pre-school education services provided at the AWC was to strengthen the focus on early childhood care and stimulation among children under 3 years of age. In other words, the model sought to enhance child care by including child stimulation along with a package of child feeding and health care being delivered through the Government’s ICDS program. The pilot or the AWC-cum-creche model was implemented entirely by and through Government systems, with some technical assistance from IFPRI and the World Bank in the form of capacity building of the newly recruited creche workers. Being completely government managed and owned makes the model not only potentially scalable but also provides a clear understanding of the barriers, limitations and opportunities if it is adopted and scaled up. (India)
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Adding crèche (day-care) services, with child stimulation, feeding and health care, to existing Anganwadi Centres under the ICDS programme in Madhya Pradesh. Crèche workers were newly recruited and trained with technical assistance from IFPRI and the World Bank.
- Population
- Children aged 6-72 months whose mothers go to work, with a focus on children under 3 years, in Anganwadi Centres in Madhya Pradesh.
World Bank documents and reports · 21 Sept 2018